Continuous silica coatings on glass fibers via bioinspired approaches

Simple methods for producing continuous inorganic coatings on fibers have application in multiple technologies. The application of bioinspired strategies for the formation of particulate inorganic materials has been widely investigated and provides routes to inorganic materials under environmentally benign conditions. In this work, we describe the formation of stable and continuous inorganic coatings on glass fibers via the polymerization of silica in the presence of biopolymers. The formation of both organic and inorganic coatings was investigated via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. The simple route to silica coatings presented herein could be interesting for the development of functional hybrid fibrous materials suitable for catalytic and sensor applications, given the homogeneous nature of the silica films and the benign conditions employed for film formation.